With the close of the candidacy filing deadline June 7, the stage was set for this year’s local elections and the players began rehearsing their roles for November.

Across Washington County, 20 people have filed for mayor and 56 to fill town and city council seat vacancies. At least one other candidate that filed has already withdrawn, eliminating the need for a primary in Hildale.

This year, Hildale joined St. George and Cedar City in receiving instruction on elections law changes as Lieutenant Governor’s Office staffers made an educational swing around the state.

“One of the things that has recently changed (in state election law) is that the city is required to post the candidate’s name, office and campaign contact on the city website within three days of declaration,” Justin Lee, the deputy director of elections for the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, told the city officers during the April 20 meeting.

In that regard, Hildale officials were more compliant than some of their colleagues – a review of all Washington County city websites during the past week showed that most had not posted contact information for the candidates. LaVerkin and Washington City had not posted the names of all candidates, but Washington City has since remedied the situation.

Those cities that will conduct primary elections – including St. George, Washington City, Enterprise, Toquerville, LaVerkin and Virgin – have a July 25 deadline for getting mail-in ballots out to voters who have requested them, Lee said during the election training as he highlighted a number of recent changes regarding by-mail ballots, candidacy declaration, newspaper publication, signature challenges, early voting, result notification, financial disclosures and the political activities of public officials.